Is the wheel of devolved governance enroute to its destination or a stop?

The proclamation of a Katiba Day to allow the nation reflect on the promulgation of the Constitution is another surprise twist into our never ending drama. Depending on which side of the constitutional divide one stands on, President William Ruto’s Executive fiat would mean different things to different people. However, the undeniable truth is that in a civilised society, a Constitution is a lived experience in the lives of ordinary citizens for which it was designed to govern. It requires no special day to create awareness of its very existence.

Thus, having a Katiba Day will not restore the integrity standards that were killed in Parliament when enacting the enabling legislation. The victims of recent police brutality during protests will not suddenly regain their breath or broken limbs nor their families find relief simply because we made speeches on Katiba Day. Constitutional commissions filled with Executive loyalists will not miraculously regain their voice for the benefit of the governed simply because they appeared in various places to reflect on Katiba Day after 15 years of false start.

Constitutional experts have consistently opined that we have one of the most robust Constitutions in the world, save for our human and leadership failures to actualise the envisioned outcomes. Our individual and leadership greed has derailed the nation from realising what the second generation of liberators laid down their lives for

It was ODM leader Raila Odinga’s remarks at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) on the failures and possibly a rethinking of the devolved government units that stole the show.

His strong sentiments on the number and sustainability of our counties raises serious questions as to whether they have lived up to their promise as envisioned in the Constitution. It appears that the number and structure of our counties is an uncomfortable debate that we must have to face sooner rather than later. Any county boss needs to watch this unfolding scene keenly. But the question is: Have the county bosses failed to warrant the emerging public discomfort over the role of the counties?

At the heart of this discussion is whether the structure of devolution that we set for ourselves is fiscally sustainable. From this column, while this is a healthy debate that we must have going forward, any attempts to establish another layer of government is an idea that must be rejected completely. Kenyans, in the current structure are undoubtedly over represented in addition to the hefty perks that come with elective offices in the country.

Reflecting on the sustainability of 47 county governments, their own source revenue (OSR) data 12 years into devolution if damning. OSR is a good indicator of the economic activity at the county level given the devolved revenue sources. This analysis excludes revenues collected from the Facility Improvement Financing source that does not count as an economic activity.

According to the Controller of Budget report for the fiscal year 2023/24, only three countries were able to raise at least 25 per cent of their budget from OSR. These are Narok, Mombasa and Nairobi, with OSR accounting for 31.33, 27.88 and 27.12 per cent of their approved budgets respectively. Four counties, Tana River, Garissa, West Pokot and Marsabit raised one per cent or less of their budget from OSR at 1, 0.91, 0.85 and 0.58 per cents respectively. In total, 33 counties could not raise at least five  per cent of their approved budgets from OSR. Only five counties achieved at least 10 per cent of their budgets from local revenue sources.

However, the common aim for any decentralised system of government is to increase OSR to minimise dependence on national transfers, improve local service delivery and foster public accountability. Further, there are several factors that will influence the revenue needs for devolved units, including local economic capacity, intergovernmental fiscal relations, scope of devolved functions and fiscal autonomy vis-à-vis central control.

According to available literature, some of the countries with the highest levels of locally generated revenues for devolved units are Finland and Sweden, with local government achieving great autonomy from internally generated revenues. Other countries that have shown strong revenue performance for local governments are South Africa and Brazil. The benefits of strong revenue performance for decentralized units include reduced reliance on national transfers, improved service delivery, and accountability and participation.

This brings us to the central questions in this debate: what revenue threshold should a county achieve to be fiscally sustainable as alluded in the argument of too many counties for a small country like Kenya? More fundamentally, is it morally right for governors, Members of County Assembly and top county government officials to be moving around with high-end cars when their counties cannot raise even five per cent of their budgets? What becomes of the devolved functions if the counties are largely dependent of the mandatory transfer from the national government? Does such financial dependence inspire hope in achieving the dream of bringing the government ‘mashinani’?

To start with, it is good that Kenyans have started expressing a form of displeasure where county bosses splash wanton opulence without commensurate developmental outcomes in their own counties. It is my considered view that the organisers of the devolution conference would need to rethink of this event, if the counties have nothing tangible to showcase. Homa Bay fiesta seems to have left a sour taste in the mouths of not only ordinary Kenyans, but also of powerful actors in Kenya’s political scene.

Secondly, it is time that we developed a development based metric to evaluate the fiscal sustainability of a county and defined performance indicators of a governor. In countries like China, governors are first and foremost evaluated based on the economic outcomes. Advanced economies like the United States from which we borrowed heavily our devolution model, a State’s economic performance is a key metric during elections for governors.

We cannot have a state where county bosses are perpetually whining of delays of exchequer releases, when they are achieving very little at the local level.

It cannot be morally right for county bosses to demonstrate raw opulence from equitable share, whose intent was to drive local development.

In 2023/24 fiscal year, only nine counties spent at least 30 per cent of their expenditure on development. These are Marsabit, Narok, Homa Bay, Mandera, Siaya, Trans Nzoia, Kitui, Kilifi and Turkana. At least six counties including Makueni, West Pokot, Nyamira, Kakamega, Bomet and Nairobi did not meet even the mandatory 30 per cent budgetary allocation towards development.

Given the foregoing considerations, it is probably time that the country gave a little more thought into Raila’s sentiments if we are going to breath life into the so called Katiba Day.